Reference
Glossary
Every term you will meet on this site and most you will meet elsewhere, defined in one sentence a beginner can read and then explained properly. Where a term is routinely misunderstood, the entry says how.
Consensus & Security22Cryptography8Custody & Access15Data & Measurement27DeFi17Foundations20Institutional Access13Market Structure28Regulation & Policy19Risk & Failure Modes23Scaling & Infrastructure18Stablecoins13Tokens & Supply37
11 terms shown
| Term | Category | In one sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Off-Chain Data | Data & Measurement | Information about digital assets that does not live on a blockchain, such as exchange trades, company disclosures, and price feeds. |
| Off-Ramp | Market Structure | A service that converts digital assets back into government-issued money, paid out to a bank account or card. |
| On-Chain Data | Data & Measurement | Information recorded directly in a blockchain's blocks, readable by anyone who runs or queries a node. |
| On-Ramp | Market Structure | A service that converts government-issued money into digital assets, usually funded by a bank transfer or a card payment. |
| Open Interest | Market Structure | The total size of derivative contracts currently open, counting positions that have not yet been closed or settled. |
| Optimistic Rollup | Scaling & Infrastructure | A rollup that assumes posted results are correct and gives observers a window in which to challenge them with a fraud proof. |
| Oracle | Scaling & Infrastructure | A service that brings outside information, such as a price or an event outcome, onto a blockchain so contracts can use it. |
| Oracle Failure | Risk & Failure Modes | When the outside data a blockchain application depends on, usually a price, is wrong, delayed, or manipulated, and the application acts on it anyway. |
| Order Book | Market Structure | A live list of the prices and quantities people are willing to trade at, sorted from the best bid to the best offer. |
| Over-Collateralization | DeFi | Requiring a borrower to lock collateral worth more than the amount borrowed, so the loan stays covered if prices move. |
| Over-the-Counter Trading | Market Structure | Large trades arranged directly between two parties or through a desk, instead of being placed on a public exchange. |